From Tradition, to which this section of the last edition of Oasis was dedicated, to Education, a subject that forms the title of the cover of this edition of our review, is one short step but one not in the least to be taken for granted. Short because it is evident that the connection between the two terms is very close: to communicate and to test what we receive from the past involves a work of acceptance and dialogue with the next generations and not only with previous generations. But this work, this ‘handing over of a manual of life’ as Cardinal Turkson calls it in his leading article, is not mechanical and consequential. It involves of necessity the role of freedom, indeed of two freedoms: between those who give and those who receive is created a dynamic relationship that is open to the unforeseen and to shared construction. The authors of this section explore the different aspects of the subject of education, from its foundations and principles to the historical experiences that document how at the centre of every culture is specifically located that process of knowledge and communication which unites the generations.

St. Augustine wrote to his friend Deogratias on the meaning and method of education, referring in particular to the work of catechesis. Fifteen centuries later, in the speech that Benedict XVI gave to Romans ‘on the Urgent Task of Educating Young People’, there emerges a singular and powerful consonance with the vision of the Bishop of Ippona. At the centre of the two texts is the ‘dialogue of freedoms’ typical of the educational dimension, a dialogue that culminates in love. This necessarily includes love for truth, as this Pope himself observed in his meeting with the Muslims of the Cameroon. And which re-echoes in the medieval pages of ‘the proof of Islam’ Al-Ghazâlî.

Minister, thinker, leader writer and consultant to various international organisations: Georges Corm is one of the most brilliant and eclectic figures of the contemporary Lebanon. He loves opinions that go against the mainstream as one can understand when reading this impassioned interview in which ardour and tension reveal his absolute love for his suffering and irreplaceable land.
 

A journey to the United Arab Emirates where the idea is to change the face of a piece of the world. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, very many of whom are Christians, are active day and night in the colossal building sites that bring out from the desert the flowers of cement and glass created by man.

Articles, analyses and testimonies from different countries and on different subjects. In this edition: preparing for the next Synod of the Middle East; the vision of women in the Koran and in Muslim exegesis: finance according to Islam; a philosophy of human rights; in Iraq in the refuge of the Christians: the Lebanon of faiths celebrates the mother of Jesus

In the books of this edition: the modern revolution that began in Geneva; the icons of the Holy Land; so as not to lose the genius of Massignon; the madras schools and their function; why one cannot speak about a ‘return’ to the sacred. And lastly, to end this section, an itinerary between the films of today and yesterday following the red line of the ‘tale of formation’.